Tender honeycombed pieces of tripe stewed in fragrant spiced broth. For those who don’t eat tripe, you can get a similar stew with veal that rivals the tripe in tenderness. It’s called Capipota (In Catalan, this literally means “head and leg”). It’s a stew that transforms various parts of veal’s foot and head into a rich plate of gelatinous goodness.
Capipota. A stew that transforms various parts of veal’s foot and head into a rich plate of gelatinous goodness.
Tripe Stew cooked in fragrant spiced broth. Dip the bread served with it into the stew to soak up its flavorful sauce!
We had our first taste of these dishes when we sat down at the 14-seat tapas stand called Pinotxo Bar (pronounced “pinnochio”) located in a market called Mercat de La Boqueria also known as El Mercat de Sant Josep in Barcelona. It is situated right off La Rambla street in the district of Ciutat Vella.
Merkat de La Boqueria, Barcelona. A must visit when you’re in town!
When seated, we uttered the one sentence of Spanish that we felt confident with… “Dos cafe con leche, por favor” (Two coffee with milk, please)! An affable and smiling Juanito Bayen (owner of the place) in his decked out pressed striped vest and dapper bow tie gives us the thumbs up and moments later, serves us two cups of cafe con leche.
With broken Spanish, we basically said something along the lines of “recommend house specialty, please” (“Recommendia especialidad de la casa, por favor“). Next thing we know, we were served the tripe and veal stew mentioned above and the following dishes…
Fried lamb – Crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. We can imagine eating a bucket of these, each!
This is an unforgettable dish – another of Pinotxo Bar’s specialty – Chipirónescon mongetes, a warm plate of baby squid and light beans, bathed in warm sauce of olive oil and drizzled with reduced balsamic vinegar.
We saw that most people who sat down next to us would order a plate of Pan con tomate (Bread with tomato), we pointed to the dish and said “Uno, por favor” (one, please). It was a perfect accompaniment to all the dishes we were served.
Another dish worth mentioning is their grilled fish. Simply grilled and sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt, it was amazingly delicious! Pinotxo gets their supply of pescado (fish) from the fresh shipment of fish in the market every morning.
Grilled Fish – mouthwateringly delicious. Another must eat if you’re stopping by Pinotxo Bar.
Pinotxo Bar – Get there early to get a seat or you’ll have to stand behind someone that you think is about to leave in order to get a seat.
Pinotxo Bar
We got to the market around 8:30am so were lucky enough to secure two free seats. Within a short time, the 14-seat bar was all filled and anyone who came after that had to partake in the “hover-behind-diners-that-you-think-are-about-leave” strategy to get a seat.
La Boqueria is not just a simply a fish or jamon market. It houses all the phases of a food chain, encompassing fresh fish, poultry, raw produce and cured meats (such as the famous jamón serrano, among the best in the city) all the way to mouthwatering cooked dishes ready for you to eat at any of the tapas stands in the market.
We highly recommend Pinotxo Bar if you’re looking for delicious breakfast or lunch tapas in Barcelona.
Other tapas bars in the market that have been recommended to us are Bar Central La Boqueria and El Quim de La Boqueria. We’ll share details of our experience at Bar Central shortly in another post. We did not know about El Quim at the time, so we didn’t stop by. El Quim is on our list for the next time we are in Barcelona!
- Pinotxo Bar’s address: La Boqueria 466 – 467, La Rambla 89, 08002 Barcelona, Espana. Phone: 933 171 731
- Bar Central La Boqueria‘s address: La Boqueria 494, La Rambla.
- El Quim de La Boqueria‘s address: La Boqueria 606, La Rambla.
- At Pinotxo Bar, at the very least, be sure to order their baby squid with beans dish (Chipirónescon mongetes), beef or tripe stew (Capipota), grilled fish, fried lamb and bread with tomato (Pan con tomate).
- The market, La Boqueria, is about 10 minutes walk from the famous Plaza Catalunya. It is located off of La Rambla (another famous tourist street) street.
- To accompany your breakfast, try cafe con Leche (coffee with milk), zumos de naranja (fresh squeeze orange juice) or cava (champagne).
- If you get there and there are no empty seats, don’t worry. You just need to hover behind diners until someone leaves.
- Get there early to avoid the line of people. We were there around 8am and was able to get free seats. The rest of the seats filled up fairly quickly soon after.
Have you been to Pinotxo Bar? What other tapas places do you recommend? Do Share!
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46 Comments
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Have you ever tried El Quim? Which one do you think more delicious? El Quim / Pinotxo Bar? I only have a short time at La Boqueria. So i need to choose between Pinotxo Bar or El Quim. Any recommend for the food?
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Author
No, we did not try El Quim. Which did you end up trying?
Jeremy & Shirlene recently posted..{Korea} Our 6D5N itinerary to Seoul
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Awesome. This list is great. We will definitely be checking out some of your recommendations.
Pasture Braised recently posted..Borough Market, Haters Gonna Hate, Eaters Gonna Love
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Do let us know what you think! We really miss Barcelona and look forward to when we’d get to go back again! If you’ve discovered other good places to eat in barcelona, do share and let us know too!
Jeremy & Shirlene recently posted..Welcome to Idelish v2.0!
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Awesome. We are headed to Tickets on Friday night. But we will definitely check out some of your recommendations.
Pasture Braised recently posted..Borough Market, Haters Gonna Hate, Eaters Gonna Love-
We’d love to hear what you think of our recommendations!
Jeremy & Shirlene recently posted..Welcome to Idelish v2.0!
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Wow! These photos are beautiful, and the food looks so amazing. I will definitely go here when I visit Spain again.
Stephanie – The Travel Chica recently posted..Welcome to El Chalten-
Thanks Stephanie! You definitely should drop by La Boqueria. You’ll love all the tapas bar there!
Jeremy & Shirlene recently posted..{Spain} Cuevas El Abanico, a Cave Hotel in Granada
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You guys are much braver than I am when it comes to food. I probably wouldn’t have eaten any of that. Great write up though!
Christy recently posted..The Fear of Failure & Why I Refuse to Let it Win-
We figured we’ve come so far… might as well give it a go! 🙂
Jeremy & Shirlene recently posted..{Mexico} Exploring the Underwater World of Cozumel, a Top Scuba Diving Destination
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I adore tapas (and now I’m hungry!) Nice Pics.
Erik recently posted..Photo of the Day- Boston, Massachusetts-
Thanks Erik! We didn’t know what the fuss was about tapas before we went to Spain! Now we’re fans of tapas too!!!
Jeremy & Shirlene recently posted..{USA} Is the Sunrise at Haleakala Worth the Effort of Getting There?
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Love your style of ordering food!
~ Emme
Emme Rogers recently posted..Great Eats, Local Finds & the MUSEUMS in the MuseumsQuartier, Vienna’s Outdoor Living Room – Part 2-
Haha – our “leave it to the chefs” method has worked quite well most of the time 🙂
Jeremy & Shirlene recently posted..{Mexico} Exploring the Underwater World of Cozumel, a Top Scuba Diving Destination
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